'Customer flow' describes the customer's experience from when they enter the store until they leave it. Customer flow optimization means that you remove obstacles that make it difficult and complicated for the customer to shop. Effectively guiding customers' movement through the shopping experience is important.
One of the most important parts of the customer flow is how you reach the customers who need help and how you manage the queue. The fact that customers need to queue is usually not the problem, but it is usually the queue management itself that is the challenge.
Queuing is something that affects many people, so much so that some even show stress symptoms such as heart palpitations during unclear and confusing queues. A bad queuing experience can lead to customer dissatisfaction, less sales and ineffective staff. The customers then go to a competitor instead.
Good queue management instead has a big impact on the staff's efficiency. Having no queue formation at all means that the store has too many staff and a long queue instead means that there are too few staff.
If you have an eye on these parts and streamline how you help customers on the "floor" and manage the queue, it leads to increased customer satisfaction, more efficient staff and increased sales.
Where do the stops in the customer flow most often occur? Let's go through two different scenarios with three different solutions.
The customer needs help outside the store.
The customer is well-read and has written a shopping list. Once in place at the department in question, there are many different variants to choose from and the customer needs help.
1. Solution without a queue system
The customer goes out the main entrance to look for someone to ask. The customer sees one of the staff some distance away and goes there, but is told that he is not the right person and is directed to the counter of the department in question. The customer goes there, but there is no one there to ask. The customer enters the next aisle and there is one of the staff helping another customer. Our customer stands next to it at a small distance and waits until the staff becomes free.
2. Solution with traditional paper queue systems
The customer goes out the main entrance to look for someone to ask. The customer sees that there are queue cards at the information counter. The customer takes a physical queue slip and stands at the counter waiting for someone from the staff to come. However, the staff is unpacking goods a little further down the department and has no knowledge that there is a customer waiting in line to get help.
3. Solution with Flowby's digital queue system
In several places in the department there is a QR code to scan if you need help. The customer scans the code with their mobile phone and is placed in a digital queue. The customer sees his place in the queue and how many people are ahead. During the time in the queue, the customer can move around the store in peace and quiet, knowing that a notification will be sent when it is the customer's turn to get help. The staff receives a notification and sees on their computer screen or mobile that there is a person in the queue in department X and can go there to help the customer directly.
The customer has ordered an item online with collection in store.
The customer has shopped online and chosen to collect in store. Since everything is paid for and ready, the expectation from the customer is that the delivery will take place quickly and smoothly.
1. Solution without a queue system
Once there, the customer discovers that the queue for pick up in store is the same as for the check out and it is quite long. The customer stands in line and waits his turn.
2. Solution with traditional paper queue systems
The customer takes a queuing slip to the service department, which handles both online pick-up and service & return. The customer stands in a corner and waits his turn.
3. Solution with Flowby's digital queue system
The customer scans a QR code and selects the "Pick up in store" queue.
The customer enters their order number for a smoother pick-up. The customer is now placed in a mobile queue and has full control of how many people are ahead of them in the queue. Instead of just standing in a corner and waiting, the customer walks around the store and picks up goods that might not otherwise be bought. The staff can see that there is a customer in the pick up in store queue and can choose to prioritize it in the queue. At the warehouse, there is also a computer screen that shows all the order numbers that are in the queue for collection so that the staff can pick up the order even before it is the customer's turn.
Our customers testify to increased customer satisfaction, increased sales and more efficient staff.
You test Flowby free of charge for one month and thereafter the price is SEK 250 per queue per month.